Say, how come the DOJ isn’t prosecuting top Obama crony Jon Corzine?

posted at 8:02 pm on July 26, 2012 by Allahpundit

Via Breitbart, three possibilities here, all of them plausible and by no means mutually exclusive. One: The DOJ just isn’t in the business of prosecuting bankers anymore. If they didn’t go after anyone for the subprime crisis, they’re sure as shinola not going to start with a Democrat who used to be a governor and senator. Two: Corzine was and still is a mega-bundler for the Lightbringer, and as you know, there’s no creature in the Obama universe who’s valued quite as highly these days as a rich guy who can raise big dollars. To illustrate, clear your mind and reflect on all the stories you’ve read over the past six months about O attending ritzy fundraisers to keep feeding the maw of his huge campaign operation. Okay, now read this. QED. The Justice Department’s not going to deprive their boss of someone he desperately needs.

Three, per “Throw Them All Out” author Peter Schweizer: Turns out there are conflicts of interest galore at the DOJ for Eric Holder and his deputies when it comes to Corzine and MF Global.

First, the Government Accountability Institute has discovered that prior to going bankrupt, MF Global was a client of Mr. Holder’s former law firm, Covington & Burling. It is unclear how long Covington & Burling represented MF Global. However, records reveal that MF Global owed Covington & Burling $114,275.55 “for services rendered prior to Oct. 31, 2011,” the date MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection. Furthermore, this connection is complicated by the fact that the head of Justice’s criminal division, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, also hailed from Covington & Burling.

What’s more, Associate Attorney General Tony West, who helped raise an estimated $65 million in his role as the co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s campaign, came to the Department of Justice from Morrison & Foerster. The problem: MF Global’s trustee for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy has retained Morrison & Foerster as its general bankruptcy counsel.

Second, the trustee overseeing MF Global’s bankruptcy is former FBI Director Louis Freeh. During Mr. Holder’s 2009 Senate confirmation hearing, Mr. Freeh appeared as a witness testifying on Mr. Holder’s behalf. While Mr. Freeh stated that the two men shared no “social relationship,” the former FBI director praised the legal work Mr. Holder did for him when Mr. Freeh, then the general counsel for MBNA Bank in Wilmington, Del., retained Mr. Holder to represent MBNA Bank. “As general counsel, I could have engaged any lawyer in America to represent our bank,” Mr. Freeh said. “I chose Eric.”

It would seem the better part of wisdom for Mr. Holder to recuse himself from the investigation of MF Global given that the trustee and Mr. Holder have a clear previous legal relationship.

Obvious solution: A special prosecutor. Anyone think it’s in the offing in an election year, with the remaining tatters of Obama’s Hopenchange brand dependent upon there not being any screaming new headlines about one of his richest, sleaziest cronies being indicted?

I think I’m still sticking with reason number two as the prime explanation for why Corzine’s free. Watch this clip from the Journal published a few days ago to see why.

In fact, since the President can pardon anyone at any time– before, during, or after conviction of a crime— this year’s Presidential Pardon List is going to look a lot like this year’s campaign staff, and this year’s Administration.

I posted this on the earlier thread, and I really wish some enterprising blogger or reporter would follow up on this. There is a very real reason why Jon Corzine is not going to be prosecuted, at least until after the election.

Soon after Corzine took over at MF Global, the company was awarded “primary dealer” status by the Treasury, a lucrative franchise to sell U.S. Treasury bonds. There are only 22 primary dealers and many of the best-known securities firms do not have this coveted franchise. Only the most well-capitalized and well-managed firms normally are able to obtain it. MF Global almost certainly would not have qualified, since it had previously dealt in nothing even resembling Treasury securities and was in fact nearly insolvent when Corzine took over. Getting the primary dealer status was crucial to Corzine’s plan to grow the business into something resembling another Goldman Sachs. It was also crucial to giving MF the credibility it needed to start making other deals like the ones than ended up losing the $2 billion.

I’m convinced that Corzine used his connections with Tim Geithner and the New York Fed (whose president is a former ALF-CIO honcho) to get the primary dealer status. Somebody bent the rules bigtime, to do this. And I am pretty certain that nobody was monitoring MF Global as other primary dealers are monitored either. And it will all come out if Corzine is prosecuted.

It’s probably best to wait for the Romney administration to prosecute these things instead of a Holder white wash. If Romney’s worth a damn, he’ll put most of his presidential energy into prosecuting the left and I’m not just talking about Obama and his minions. The climate hoax trial should be the trial of the century.

While Mr. Freeh stated that the two men shared no “social relationship,” the former FBI director praised the legal work Mr. Holder did for him when Mr. Freeh, then the general counsel for MBNA Bank in Wilmington, Del., retained Mr. Holder to represent MBNA Bank. “As general counsel, I could have engaged any lawyer in America to represent our bank,” Mr. Freeh said. “I chose Eric.”

Smart move, because if you’re a bank, and Eric Holder isn’t on your team, you’re going to be screwed.

In fact, since the President can pardon anyone at any time– before, during, or after conviction of a crime– this year’s Presidential Pardon List is going to look a lot like this year’s campaign staff, and this year’s Administration.

No, this is different. Primary dealer status has NEVER been something subject to political manipulation. This is an unprecedented level of corruption.

Corzine took over a firm that was small and broke. He knew the best way to jumpstart it with some easy profits and get it inot the “big leagues” was to get primary dealer status. He leapfrogged over a few other major and better-managed securities firms to get it. Those firms are still waiting. I have some knowledge of this. There was considerable outrage in the industry after the MF Global collapse when it became known that it was a primary dealer.

I sent this tip to Breitbart, and I hope they follow up on it. There were a few questions asked about this when Corzine testified to Congress, but not enough.

For the same reason the DoJ isn’t prosecuting Mad Mayor Mike Bloomberg for conspiracy to violate federal firearms laws when he hired private detectives to buy guns for him in the south….professional courtesy.

Look. I know a lot about the banking problems of 2008 and later. Here is something to keep in mind. Please:

You can’t prosecute somebody just because something went horribly wrong under their watch. They have to actually violate, you know, a law. I have no idea what the DOJ does and does not have on Corzine, but I will say that there have been no smoking guns reported in the press.

Innuendo is fine, but, to be frank, I don’t want to live in a society where public opinion drives whether a person is charged with a crime and has their life taken away from them. Conservatives argue (and rightfully) that George Zimmerman is being railroaded for political purposes. A precipitous charge against Corzine based solely on the public’s perception that he must have done something wrong would be no better.

Federal prosecutors have been clobbered for stretching the rules to charge white collar “bad guys.” See Conrad Black and Jeff Skilling. If they are being more careful to follow the law as opposed to public opinion that’s a good thing, in my opinion.

Yes, I’m a lawyer. No, I have no involvement in the prosecution or defense of any criminal matters whatsoever.

When you shatter part of the foundation that this Country was builty upon…

… that we are a Country of Laws, and no one, even a President, is above the Law, and we sit back and watch as Obowma and Hodler knock the scales out of Justice’s hand, then bend her over and raper her, I would not be surprised if these actions had some very serious unintended consequences.

Maybe the same reason that the DoJ is rank and rife with nepotism and cronyism.

The Obama administration has systematically appointed unqualified crony’s and ideologues to all key federal agencies.

The result has been to destabilize all of these agencies, rendering then ineffective, inadequate and inefficient. The DoJ and the agencies responsible for immigration, enforcement and border stabilization and security are prime examples.

President Romney will necessarily have to implement corporate style personnel evaluation and replacement to identify and replace employees and appointees who are not effective and efficient in fulfilling the duties assigned them, and thus, facilitating accomplishing the duties each agency has been tasked or created specifically to perform.

It would seem the better part of wisdom for Mr. Holder to recuse himself from the investigation of MF Global given that the trustee and Mr. Holder have a clear previous legal relationship.

Are you OUT OF YOUR MIND Allah? Let a Special Prosecutor loose? Someone you cannot control? If anyone knows where the bodies are, Corzine does – and he’d probably trade it in exchange for a nice country-club federal prison.

Romney needs to make a Corzine ad, and call him “barack obama’s Bernie Madoff” in the ad. THAT will get people’s attention, and no chance in hell Corzine sues. Do it, Mitt! Do it! Bathe barack in Corzine’s billion dollar rip-off of little old ladies’ life savings!

The reason they’re not prosecuting him, yet, is that securities charges are very difficult to win and involve a great deal of painstaking reconstruction of events. Since stupidity is not yet a felony, bankers are legally allowed to do a huge amount of seemingly criminal damage without actually being guilty of an offense. This is why, for example, no one at AIG has been prosecuted, even though its failure cost shareholders and taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It takes a great deal of time to build a case that there was actual scienter (intent to do wrong) involved and – unlike with your average bank robber – you don’t need to lock the guy up in the mean time.

Special prosecutors are, at best useful for investigating infractions withing the government. Scooter Libby types. The only people calling for one in this case are those hoping to get their face on TV and gain a little partisan advantage.

#2
#3
What Rockmom said at 8:24 pm
and #4 those of the political class are not covered by the law. At the moment, the exemption includes Republicans. If Buraq Hussein is re-elected, expect the Black Marias to roll for them.

Ann Barnhardt shut down her brokerage firm after the MF Global story broke, saying that it showed that the system was totally broken. She got all her clients out safely without loss.

This just shows how in bed all these people were before Obama was ordained by the DNC to be the nominee.

Lest one forget, Joe Biden and his son Beau, were knee-deep in MBNA and keeping credit card rates high while making sure Delaware maintained preferable corporate laws, rules, and regulations for the banking industry.

I lived most of my life until 6 years ago right across the Maryland/Delaware line from all these banks and also worked as a law office manager handling many real estate settlements coming out of MBNA – unreal. All their loans were sold to someone else before they ever went to settlement. AND that was in the 1990s. This stuff was cooking for a long time before it finally melted down in 2008.

Federal prosecutors have been clobbered for stretching the rules to charge white collar “bad guys.” See Conrad Black and Jeff Skilling. If they are being more careful to follow the law as opposed to public opinion that’s a good thing, in my opinion.

Yes, I’m a lawyer. No, I have no involvement in the prosecution or defense of any criminal matters whatsoever.

I’m sure you were just as understanding when the Bush Administration took its time indicting and convicting Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skillings.

rockmom on July 26, 2012 at 9:34 PM

.
What theses trolls are desperate to avoid is a 10 minute discussion on the electronic transfer of funds process and signoff requirements.

In this day and age, if you moved funds from client accounts into the companies accounts there is an audit trail that shows:
Who authorized the transfer? – For these amounts of money at least two separate people are required.
When did they authorize it?
Why did they authorize it?

and then the MCH or equivalent documents EXACTLYhow much was moved from account A to account B and every other account the money was moved through down to the split second.
ANYONE saying “It is all so complicated and difficult to figure out!” is using the Big Lie technique.

ANYONE.

My wife has been doing these types of transactions for 20 years now. I can not count the number of times she has had a problem becasue one of the required parties was not available and ALL THE EXTRA DOCUMENTATION THEY HAD TO DO BECAUSE OF IT.

Hard to raise money when you’re wearing an orange jumpsuit. Corzine was promoted as some kind of brilliant leader, the only one who could handle a govt job, governor, and ceo. Sounds like all the rest of the lefty crooks in the regime.

After decades of practical application and trial-and-error, Democrats have refined graft to the level of financial investment, like those hedge funds and derivative thingies. The billions that were “disappeared” here will likely turn up in post-presidency “libraries” and “foundations”. Big dinners and lavish vacations will still be had.

I don’t buy number three. The connections are too complex to grab the average voters attention. If there was something to be gained by going after Corzine, Holder would do it.

The biggest thing Corzine has going for him is that most of the people talking about going after Wall Street really just want to find a way to blame Republicans for the recession. John Corzine is a Democrat in good standing. Putting him on trial wouldn’t do anything for the anti-Wall Street crowd. Even if they think he’s guilty as hell, they probably think MF Global is just a distraction from the real (Republican) problem.

Not to worry. As soon as the election is over Holder will appoint two three special prosecutors who even right now are working to make sure that Republicans aren’t successful in limiting voters to people who actually are American citizens.